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SABELE GRAY v. RICHARD E. GRAY (AC 30512) (AC 31700)
Beach, Espinosa and Pellegrino, Js. Argued May 25--officially released September 13, 2011

(Appeal from Superior Court, judicial district of Middlesex; Gordon, J. [judgment]; Calmar, J. [plaintiff's motions for contempt (arrearage); defendant's motions for contempt (visitation; execution of documents); defendant's motions for accounting, production, certain payments]; Vitale, J. [plaintiff's motion for contempt

(arrearage); defendant's motions for return of passports and modification of financial orders].) Richard E. Gray, Sr., pro se, the appellant (defendant). Bourke G. Spellacy, with whom, on the brief, was David R. Makarewicz, for the appellee (plaintiff).

Opinion

ESPINOSA, J. The self-represented defendant, Richard E. Gray, appeals from several judgments of the trial court rendered in favor of the plaintiff, Sabele Gray, following a judgment of dissolution. In AC 30512, the defendant claims that the court abused its discretion by: (1) finding him in contempt for not making support payments to the plaintiff; (2) modifying his support payments in the manner that it did; (3) denying his motion to compel the plaintiff to produce certain financial documents; (4) excluding certain evidence and failing to take into consideration other evidence; and (5) failing to sanction the plaintiff more harshly for her contemptuous conduct. In AC 31700, the defendant claims that the court abused its discretion by: (1) finding him in contempt for not paying an arrearage on support payments owed the plaintiff; (2) ordering him to return his children's passports to the plaintiff; and (3) failing to hold an evidentiary hearing related to the passport issue. We affirm the judgments of the trial court. The following facts are relevant to our consideration of this appeal. The parties were divorced on August 12, 2003. In the dissolution judgment, the court ordered the defendant to pay the plaintiff $6000 in child support and $2750 per month in alimony. On September 11, 2005, the parties signed a postjudgment stipulation that provided for reduced monthly alimony and child support payments, totaling $4500, until June 6, 2008, when the payments were to return to their original levels.1 The court entered an order incorporating this agreement on October 3, 2005. The defendant paid the reduced amount to the plaintiff between October 3, 2005, and June 6, 2008. The defendant then paid the reduced amount for June, 2008, and subsequently made no alimony or child support payments to the plaintiff in the months of July, August, September or October of that year. Instead, in each of these months, the defendant made payments equaling the reduced amount into separate bank accounts for the stated purpose of providing for the education of two of the parties' children. On November 5, 2008, the court, Calmar, J., found the defendant to be in contempt for failing to make support payments directly to the plaintiff in the original amount, as required by the postjudgment stipulation of the parties. Nevertheless, the court found that the defendant had demonstrated a substantial change in circumstances and agreed with the defendant that a modification of his support payments was warranted. The court, therefore, modified the defendant's $6000 per month child support obligation but did not modify the alimony obligation of $2750 per month. On November 23, 2009, the court, Vitale, J., found the defendant to be in contempt of a court order requiring him to pay a pendente lite arrearage, in the amount of $201,500, to the plaintiff. The court recalculated the interest due

on the arrearage but left undisturbed the initial method and monthly amount of payment set at the dissolution proceeding. The defendant appealed both rulings. Additional facts will be set forth as necessary. I AC 30512 A The defendant first claims that the court abused its discretion by finding him in contempt for not making any support payments to the plaintiff between June, 2008, and October, 2008. The defendant alleges that by making payments to bank accounts for the benefit of the children, he was not violating any court order. Alternatively, the defendant asserts that the violation was not wilful. We disagree. We review decisions of the trial court in family cases for an abuse of discretion. ``The standard of review in family matters is that this court will not disturb the trial court's orders unless it has abused its legal discretion or its findings have no reasonable basis in fact. . . . It is within the province of the trial court to find facts and draw proper inferences from the evidence presented. . . . [E]very reasonable presumption will be given in favor of the trial court's ruling, and [n]othing short of a conviction that the action of the trial court is one which discloses a clear abuse of discretion can warrant our interference.'' (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Rosato v. Rosato, 77 Conn. App. 9, 13, 822 A.2d 974 (2003). A court may only find a party in contempt when that party has wilfully failed to comply with a court order. ``To constitute contempt, a party's conduct must be wilful. . . . Noncompliance alone will not support a judgment of contempt. . . . We review the court's factual findings in the context of a motion for contempt to determine whether they are clearly erroneous.'' (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Kravetz v. Kravetz, 126 Conn. App. 459, 466, 11 A.3d 1141 (2011). In the dissolution proceeding in this case, the court ordered the defendant to make support payments to the plaintiff in the amount of $6000 in child support and $2750 per month in alimony. The postjudgment stipulation entered into by the parties on September 11, 2005, provided that support payments would be reduced to $4500 per month until June 6, 2008, when the payments would return to their original amount. In June, 2008, rather than making payments to the plaintiff as required by the court's original order, the defendant took it upon himself to deposit amounts equal to the payment agreed to in the stipulation agreement, in accounts for the parties' children. Contrary to the defendant's position, the court reasonably concluded that these actions were a knowing and wilful failure to comply with the court's order that, after June 6, 2008, pay-

ments be made directly to the plaintiff, in the original amount, as set forth in the parties' stipulation. Although the defendant may have decided to make payments in a way that better suited him, the court ordered him to make payments directly to the plaintiff, not to bank accounts for the benefit of the children. Accordingly, there was ample support for the court's finding that the defendant wilfully violated its order, and a finding of contempt was not improper. B The defendant next claims that, on November 5, 2008, the trial court, Calmar, J., abused its discretion in modifying his child support obligations. The record reflects that the court modified the support payments such that the defendant was required to pay the plaintiff $1868 in child support and $2750 in alimony. The court also required the defendant to pay $373 monthly toward the pendente lite arrearage. Specifically, the defendant claims that even though the court found a substantial change in his financial circumstances, in that he had assumed responsibility for the educational expenses of one of the parties' children, the court did not modify his obligations sufficiently. Neither the defendant's scant analysis of this claim nor our review of the record leads us to conclude that the trial court abused its discretion. C The defendant also contends that the court improperly denied his motion to compel the plaintiff to produce certain financial documents. Specifically, the defendant moved to compel the plaintiff to complete a financial affidavit that she had filed previously with the court and in which she listed the value of certain stocks as ``unknown.'' The court noted that the plaintiff completed this affidavit by providing the value of the stocks, and the court had the completed affidavit when it received evidence regarding support payments. The court, therefore, denied the motion. Nevertheless, the defendant asserts that the court did not have all of the relevant information. ``The well settled standard of review in domestic relations cases is that this court will not disturb trial court orders unless the trial court has abused its legal discretion or its findings have no reasonable basis in the facts. . . . In determining whether there has been an abuse of discretion, the ultimate issue is whether the court could reasonably conclude as it did.'' (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Hathaway v. Hathaway, 60 Conn. App. 818, 818

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